Have been binge watching Crazy Ex Girlfriend on Netflix. In Season 2, the disordered protagonist
thought she was in the center of a love triangle, but ended up dumped by both guys. So she hit re-set with a complete makeover:
Now I won't be able to watch MTM II without waiting for chunks of Kirsten's hair to come unglued and litter up the ice.
I followed Four Continents on Goldenskate, learning that, as usual, the best skating is a combination of appealing program, a musical selection that doesn't depend on musicality for fans to appreciate (in fact, for some fans, the less rythmic, the better), and undefined performance attributes. The reality that so many fans critique ice dance programs while ignoring the skating explains why so many fans side-eyed the fact that the Shibs pcs came so close to Virtue and Moir's. I'd be down with that if a) the Shibs' skating in the free dance wasn't exquisite and b) if the opinion weren't accompanied by the comment that only Papadakis & Cizeron could deservedly approach Virtue and Moir's pcs. In reality, Papadakis & Cizeron's skating skills should have them off the podium, and probably in the bottom part of the top 10.
I love the integrity of the Shibutanis' skating. I lacked the motivation to create gifs of Davis White and Papadakis Cizeron's own knee slide transitions, but they're slop. A blatant stratagem to reset by not skating. But with the Shibs, as Alex swings Maia into her set up for her transition out of the spin, she is set down on an inside edge, slides out on an inside edge and transitions in the slide to an outside edge. She doesn't have to. She's on a knee. She can be as sloppy as she wants, but she's not. This is why I love Zoueva, this is why I love the two of them. The reason so many fans don't appreciate the Shibs is skating is the last thing they're looking at when they watch ice dance. And the commentators mash-up skating skills with performance values that's just a projection of their personal taste and shit they make up. Unlike with other sports, even gymnastics, the goal of the figure skating commentator is to make sure we know less, not more, about what's going on, and what factors into results, once the event is over.
I think everybody has a good idea where Worlds is heading, and I hope I'm right about it. But I also hope that the Shibs are standing on the second tier of the podium. The gap between Virtue and Moir and the rest of the field (placing the Shibs behind them) is nearly matched by the gap between the Shibs and the rest of the field.
Finally:
Mirai Nagasu remains, by far, the biggest ladies singles talent in North America. I don't know the reason why she has struggled to keep her head in the game, but certainly the USFSA has treated her as expendable despite clutch performances that outdo its pets Gracie Gold and Ashley Wagner. Gold is the definition of a talent that can't keep herself together long enough to put together a successful season, but the USFSA is always willing to start fresh with her. Nagasu they have been pushing out the door since 2013. So this makes me very happy.
This
Last year I figured between Dylan's injury, and what I had begun to figure was Lubov's ability to enjoy pairs skating without being intense about the result, they would end up 6 or 7 and never push to podium contention, which is where their combined talents appeared to position them when they first teamed up. Everybody says Ilyushechkina doesn't have her triple jumps, but she did have them once she and Dylan got their inaugural feet under them. This outcome says they can podium in Korea.
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| "Rebecca Bunch" |
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"Rebecca Bunch" |
I followed Four Continents on Goldenskate, learning that, as usual, the best skating is a combination of appealing program, a musical selection that doesn't depend on musicality for fans to appreciate (in fact, for some fans, the less rythmic, the better), and undefined performance attributes. The reality that so many fans critique ice dance programs while ignoring the skating explains why so many fans side-eyed the fact that the Shibs pcs came so close to Virtue and Moir's. I'd be down with that if a) the Shibs' skating in the free dance wasn't exquisite and b) if the opinion weren't accompanied by the comment that only Papadakis & Cizeron could deservedly approach Virtue and Moir's pcs. In reality, Papadakis & Cizeron's skating skills should have them off the podium, and probably in the bottom part of the top 10.
I love the integrity of the Shibutanis' skating. I lacked the motivation to create gifs of Davis White and Papadakis Cizeron's own knee slide transitions, but they're slop. A blatant stratagem to reset by not skating. But with the Shibs, as Alex swings Maia into her set up for her transition out of the spin, she is set down on an inside edge, slides out on an inside edge and transitions in the slide to an outside edge. She doesn't have to. She's on a knee. She can be as sloppy as she wants, but she's not. This is why I love Zoueva, this is why I love the two of them. The reason so many fans don't appreciate the Shibs is skating is the last thing they're looking at when they watch ice dance. And the commentators mash-up skating skills with performance values that's just a projection of their personal taste and shit they make up. Unlike with other sports, even gymnastics, the goal of the figure skating commentator is to make sure we know less, not more, about what's going on, and what factors into results, once the event is over.
I think everybody has a good idea where Worlds is heading, and I hope I'm right about it. But I also hope that the Shibs are standing on the second tier of the podium. The gap between Virtue and Moir and the rest of the field (placing the Shibs behind them) is nearly matched by the gap between the Shibs and the rest of the field.
Finally:
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| Mirai Nagasu wins bronze at 4CC |
This
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| Bronze medal |
Last year I figured between Dylan's injury, and what I had begun to figure was Lubov's ability to enjoy pairs skating without being intense about the result, they would end up 6 or 7 and never push to podium contention, which is where their combined talents appeared to position them when they first teamed up. Everybody says Ilyushechkina doesn't have her triple jumps, but she did have them once she and Dylan got their inaugural feet under them. This outcome says they can podium in Korea.
Bless you, you totally nailed things re: the Shibs. I was really grossed out seeing the reaction to the Shibs' success this week, including some V/M fans deciding that C/B aren't so bad.
ReplyDeleteRight? I was grinding my teeth reading Golden Skate.Do they EVER look at the skating in ice dance? Apparently not. The Shibs fd was superb. IMO the choreography is more intricate than VM's, but VM's execution is just bigger, more powerful, and as that's the touchstone, they deserve the win. But don't even compare P/C to the Shibs.
DeleteThis competition also highlights, yet again, the futility of talking about skating when the sport itself has no interest in it. After the Shibs finished, the Eurosport guys talked about their World bronze in 2011, their years-long struggle to get climb back up, and how now they were in a new place. The reason? They're now skating with authority, with confidence, so much more confidence than other teams at their level. That's the reason, said the Eurosport dudes, because the Shibs' skating skills aren't better than those other teams that the Shibs are now defeating, there's nothing in the Shibs' skill set that puts them ahead. It's their newfound confidence and authority.
DeleteShibs skated well so not sure what people are saying. 5 point difference w vm seems reasonable given their prior meeting at Grand Prix. But what I found is I actually now like vm free dance ! I was shocked. Their first lift is a mess. It makes no sense tho it starts well.
ReplyDeleteI just hope they bring back the innovative lifts of Carmen for next year. As much as I l
I just feel that there is such obvious politics this season. As soon as VM announced they were at Gadbois, you knew the fix was in. Clearly, they deserve to win, and it sucks that they needed to be with a Canadian training center in order to get what they deserved. However, when I look at their program construction - and this was pointed out to me a lot early on - it's very like Volosozhar Trankov - it's all down to the power, the size, the speed, the ice coverage. This is a big departure from Carmen, when VM were raising the bar as to what could be accomplished using SS to execute high level TES. Knock wood, I think VM are playing the game, and they're not going to push TES.
DeleteThe Shibs fd made me really miss Zoueva's choreography for Virtue and Moir.
DeleteSeriously :(
DeleteLoved seasons - got cut off - two of the lifts were from 06 season more or less
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNow that protesting is in Charlie White has suddenly discovered his political side and gave a cringe worthy interview :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/18699691/olympic-ice-dancer-charlie-white-finding-voice-social-media
He says he feels strongly about ethics and morals. Too bad that his morals don't include the LGBT community in Russia or those gritty Detroit people that he hails from ...
Right, he and Meryl should have considered that when they decided to identify with Flint and the struggles of Detroit in general. I covered that in the blog at the time, but that interview was nauseating. Oh hey, we want to appropriate the economic struggles of the Detroit area. It was part of their image building. Two extraordinarily well off figure skaters sort of vaguely drawing a link between the struggles of a team that's not that talented, attempting to rise through the ranks, with the struggles of a community beset by systematic racism and "benign" neglect. It was pure exploitation, and sickening.
DeleteThen as you mention, there was Sochi. "Hey, you don't come into someone's house and criticize the drapes." That's right. Because human rights - or ignoring human rights - is a cultural and style choice. There were SO many ways to address that and still go to Russia without that sort of analogy. The Obama administration gave so much cover with Billy Jean King and Brian Boitano as ambassadors. How the hell hard is it? We're athletes? We want to compete. We've trained for four years to go to Sochi. But we don't want our participation to suggest we enable Russia's anti LBGTQ repression. We want to strongly support our fellow LBGTQ athletes and the activists in Russia. This is an opportunity to push back." Even as spin, even as having it both ways, it was SO easy. Instead he and Meryl were "We're guests. We don't want to rock the boat."
Oh, is it gag-worthy that the reporter calls his tweets a micro-essay. He sure isn't this well spoken when he's on TV. I have wondered if a PR person wrote those tweets, and if this interview was conducted by e-mail.
Delete"But for me, it was always a matter of show, don't tell. If I had something to say, I did it by practicing hard, being consistent, keeping a level head and going out and doing my best."
Heh, even he couldn't bring himself to say that he went out and showed it on the ice by BEING the best, just by doing HIS best.
People in their 20s can grow up a lot in the span of a few years, and become more informed and aware after something prompts them to do that. I would think that would be all the more true as someone spends a bit less time in a privileged bubble like elite sport. I'm willing to cut Charlie some slack that his thinking could have matured in the over 3 years since the Olympics season.
DeleteAthletes who were afraid to speak out against Russia's anti LGBT laws could have just said they support the Olympic charta, which states they don't accept any kind of discrimination based on gender, nationality, race, religion or sexual orientation. That way they would have spoken up without offending anybody because those are just the official guide lines of the IOC. It would have been much better than the mess Team USA has fabricated as a whole.
DeleteI'm surprised nobody ever asked Tessa and Scott about it. I don't remember any of the Canadian skaters ever speaking about it ( I could be wrong tho ). Did Skate Canada ban journalists from mentioning it ?
Maybe Skate Canada did rule off the question. But wasn't Ashley Wagner asked about it in the press conference after a comp?
DeleteI agree that people do grow up in their late twenties. Hell, biology agrees about late frontal lobe development, particularly in men. But with Davis & White, and apart from the fact that they stole a gold medal, two events stand out as especially disgusting, and I can't recall either one matched by any other supposedly noncontroversial skater or team. One was their absolutely horrifying attempt to appropriate the struggles of Detroit for their own image as scrappy ice dancers who were on an uphill climb to an inevitable gold that they, you know "earned". It wasn't given to them like some other people's gold medals. Charlie even thew in that his dad's business (an oil company, btw) was "downtown", so, you know... These two come from RICH families. The ignorance, the arrogance, the insensitivity, the entitlement. And the other was the way they treated Russia's LGBTQ policy as a style choice. Human rights is a cultural option and a style choice, you don't criticize it while you're there.
Yes, they could have quoted the charter. They could also have done something to which they were both absolutely allergic during the last cycle - tell the truth. Express gratitude that President Obama gave them cover by appointing two out gay athletes to the Olympic delegation. That move gave everybody permission to go. I think some athletes feared the media would try to corner them into boycotting Sochi and since nobody was going to do that, they had to justify why they were attending, but there are a million ways to deplore the policy and attend the Olympics. Hell, African American track and field star Jesse Owens won a gold medal in Nazi Germany, right in front of Hitler.
Charlie White:
""But for me, it was always a matter of show, don't tell. If I had something to say, I did it by practicing hard, being consistent, keeping a level head and going out and doing my best."
Yeah, very similar to an answer he gave when asked "Did you know you'd won after you finished in Sochi?" The correct answer is, of course, "I knew I'd be winning before I got on the plane to Sochi." He didn't say that, but his answer did punt. He was happy he didn't didn't screw it up for the billion people who'd helped him and Meryl to gold. I wonder what he really thinks. He would not be alone in figure skating to not really know much about figure skating, so I don't want to credit him with secretly knowing Virtue and Moir were robbed.
Didier tweeted that today in one year PC are going to be Olympic ice dance champions. He isn't even trying to hide his corruption anymore.
ReplyDeleteIsn't he the president of the French Fed? I don't agree with whatever penalties he received in 2002 - that Marie-Reine Le Gougne "scandal" was bullshit, disproven just by looking at the skating. Sikheurlidze & Berezynaya deserved the gold. That said, if Jan Dijkema previewed Papadakis & Cizeron as 2018 Olympic champs we'd know VM are screwed. Knock wood, I actually do think the Shibs have a legit shot for a silver medal (presuming VM skate their best and take gold); even though P/C are still overscored. At Europeans I think the judges were begging the Russians and the Italians to knock P/C down to third, but they couldn't deliver in the free.
DeleteROTFL forever at the idea of IM medalling in Korea. Massively overrated and completely inconsistent. The fact that MT/M can still score close to them in Canada is not a good sign at all.
ReplyDeleteIt's a long shot but not impossible, given that the slipperiest ice of all is pair skater ice. On what basis do you call I/M "massively" overrated? This is the first time they've been on the podium in an international competition. Do you think they've been overscored in past competitions?
DeleteI'm not sure what you're counting as an "international competition", but IM also medalled at both their GP events this season and at Nebelhorn as well. In both their GP events at which they medalled, Luba landed exactly ONE clean SBS jump in all four programs. At Canadians, she landed zero.
DeleteThey have lovely lines and surface-"stylish" choreography, but their so-called amazing PCS/"artistry" is very overrated. They gain speed through tons of empty stroking in their programs and when there is actual footwork or transitions, they slow down significantly. They spin very far apart. Lifts and 3-twist are very good. Their LP gets love more because of bombastic, crowd-friendly feel-good "romantic" music than the actual choreography. In the SP, Luba grins her way through the program every time when it's meant to be a tango, and no one seems to point that out.
All in all, I repeat - very overrated.
I don't call powerful stroking to gain speed "empty". It's the foundation of skating skills. Some of your style points are your personal interpretation only - why their programs "get love", "bombastic" (which of their programs used bombastic music?) Luba's facial expression I could care less about as long as her body and her skating is in the style of the tango. Is there a rule that you can't smile in tango? Nobody skates with their face, but going by commentary - not just yours, but in the broadcast booth - we wouldn't know that.
DeleteIMO, and more than with other disciplines, pairs skating is about executing the tricks cleanly and less about the in betweens. If a team goes in and out of the big elements with speed and power that is most of it. IM now have a strong 3 twist after struggling with it in the first two years of their partnership. Her jump issues did not prevent them from coming in third at the 4CCs nor from medaling in the GP series because that's pairs. Other teams had their own mistakes.
What pairs skaters do you like?
Did not say that this team were likely to get a medal, but that they could medal at the Olympics, and they could. They finished seventh at the last Worlds. Between attrition and the mistakes other teams often make, and the quality of their skating (you and I disagree), it's definitely possible.
P.S. - to clarify what we're disagreeing about - your critique of the merits of their skating doesn't change their placements. A team that finished 7th in their second Worlds (after finishing 13th in their first Worlds) who medaled in the GP series the season prior to the Olympics and was on the podium at 4CC's are possible medalists at the Olympics, that's the reality. Not *likely* medalists if other teams skate clean, but possible medalists. In Boston some of the best teams in the world made like Zambonis instead of executing their program as expected, while a team that had had a rocky season skated cleanly* (always an asterisk for Duhamel/Radford for me) and won (repeating as champs).
DeleteYou can dislike them all you want, that doesn't change where they finished and where they'd move up if attrition and execution fell out as it has often enough in the past. This would be said of any team that finished seventh at Worlds.
1. When I was referring to bombastic music, I meant the awful Josh Groban schlock of their LP. Most people would associate the bombastic with louder, screechy operatic type music (that used to be used way too often in ice dance), but the word can also mean pompous, pretentious, or overwrought, and I think their LP music is all of those things.
Delete2. Of course powerful stroking is great, but when more than 80% of what you're doing in your so-called "choreography" between elements is stroking, I call that empty. I will admit that I loved Sale and Pelletier's "Love Story" despite its emptiness, but S&P had charisma, musicality and natural pairs skills that were so above average and the program worked so well with the music that it made up for the excess emptiness between a lot of the elements.
3. I concede that yes, one could technically say any skater that has placed 7th in the world could be considered a medal contender. However, that doesn't mean the unlikeliness of that happening is not gigantic. For example, Nam Nguyen was in the world top 5 two seasons ago, so one could have considered him a "contender" for a world medal despite the fact that he barely made it to Worlds the year after, but instead, he didn't even qualify to the LP. That's an extreme example, but with Luba's extreme inconsistency on SBS jumps (see my jump count above for this season - I think she *maybe* landed two clean jumps all season so far?), the fact that they were 7th in the world last season doesn't mean much. I mean, Christ, MT/M placed 8th at Worlds last year, and I don't see anyone saying they have any chance of medalling at Olys.
4. Facial expression is part of both performance and interpretation, which are both elements of PCS. If any ice dancer grinned their way through a tango, people would jump all over them. (I mean, if Piper Gilles was the one doing it, YOU would definitely jump all over her, I'm fairly certain. I'm no big fan of G/P, but I'm just saying.)
5. I don't actually dislike I/M and I never said I did. I said I thought their Olympic medal chances are nil and that they have been very overrated this season, and I stand by both those statements. Their skating isn't really my personal cup of tea, but they're more enjoyable than most of the middle pack despite their many flaws.
6. The whole notion of pairs skating needing transitions less than the other disciplines and being more about just skating powerfully from one big trick to the next is, IMO, nonsense. The entire CoP was pretty much born because of the argument between a flawed pairs skate with intricate choreography and transitions against a perfect pairs skate with much more open choreography and simpler transitions. While in that case, I would have agreed with most people that the latter should have won (because of the points re: S&P that I mentioned above), in most cases, I would have gone with the former. Only truly brilliant skaters can really get away with open choreo and still deserve to be marked higher than others for it - to me, Michelle Kwan in her later competitive years was one of them, and S&P were in that camp as well.
7. In terms of which pairs I like, the two best teams right now to me are S/M (even though I am still not totally sold on Bruno, Aliona is such a queen and they have such unique and great choreography this season that it makes up for his weaknesses) and Sui/Han. I was a giant "stan" of Shen & Zhao in the last decade. My favourite Canadian team at the moment is Seguin/Bilodeau. I like D&R for their sheer guts and how far they've managed to get despite all odds, but I can never quite get over their trick-laden style and lack of true "pairsiness".
all i know is that VM have to re-produce carmen like program- every single element and lift new and out of this world- to "beat" PC by 2 points next season. Shibs are in for the bronze I believe. Theyve outscored chock bates each time by enough of a margin to believe so.
ReplyDeleteThe judges hated Carmen; not sure why they would reward an outstanding program like that now. My feeling is the judges want VM to skate safe programs that don't rustle any feathers. Innovation and difficulty isn't very popular with ice dance judges.
DeleteNothing to do with the judges hating Carmen, everything to do with the fix being in. Carmen was undeniable, and the ISU moved to crush it.
DeleteVirtue and Moir have defeated Papadakis and Cizeron at both meetings this season. I believe NOT doing a program like Carmen is actually part of the deal that will lead Virtue and Moir to their second Olympic gold. Do we really believe their simplified programs are happenstance, or that the ISU welcomed Carmen? Remember in a recent blog post I used a quote from Eric Radford to forward the theory that the ISU doesn't WANT one team or one skater to leap so far ahead of everybody else. Virtue and Moir certainly experienced relentless repression /suppression and last minute bullshit when they were pushing the proverbial envelope. Have they received any last minute cautions from the ISU this season? No. Because they're not doing anything that the ISU wants to disable. Everything they do, another team can do, just not as well.
DeleteThat's very depressing. I'd rather then skate carmen and dare them all.
DeleteIt seems to me that the only reason they're back is a quid pro quo. If they came back in a "dare them all" mindset, they'd be where they were from 2010-2014, only P/C would be playing the role of Davis White. They had to give something to get the wins they've been getting, and that was "training" at Gadbois.
Deleteok, OC. I agree on one point by far Carmen was one of the best FD Zueva created for V/M. So haters can't say all they do is lovey dovey stuff. However, not well received by ISU standards (for some weird reason). On diff note, the way i read all this and the comments in blog (since season started) is I don't get what it is you're trying to give to ppl here. Either V/M's comeback is not good because P/C is more in favour to win (i.e assumption at beginning of season), then changed tune when V/M looks like it's winning so "fix is in" for them (which btw, make V/M haters - who read your blog - more hate of V/M or convinced of fix) and that "V/M is playing the game by ISU" with help of Marie-Francois BUT at same time, you say V/M's skating skills are eons better than those in field. Are these founded conclusions - i.e. them playing the game and training with Montreal coaches, ISU making them not do programs like Carmen, fix is in for V/M's favour (despite transparency of judges are put back in place) or now (with Didier's recent tweet), fix is in for P/C? Then where the heck V/M's supposed superior skating skills in all this if it's not the contributing factor of why they've been winning since they competed in Senior comps since 2007? So Confusing ...
ReplyDeleteP/C fans are all alluding that P/C should be winning this season due to their (still) existing avant garde programs. Because since V/M's absence, they have been noticed for this and it seems to be a fact that ice dance favoured this genre of dance form. Now with V/M back and doing a lyrical dance, it's a has been or overrated (when in fact lots of the ice dancers are doing it). However, how does it actually compare to V/M's Carmen, Pink Floyd pieces vs P/C's past and present FD pieces? These considered as avant garde, are they not? Why one received poorly and one not?
DeleteYears from now, some new fans/only-during-the-olympics-fans/just curious people will look up V/M and D/W on Wikipedia, and at a glance will see (and judge) both teams by their medals table. And they might not care about the drawn out story of corruption in a sport that was (and is) uncomfortable with people who clearly dominate and leave their nearest competitors in the dust.
ReplyDeletePart 1 of 2
ReplyDeleteThis comment was left in early August.
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http://dubemoir.blogspot.com/2016/07/this-post-is-written-equivalent-of.html?showComment=1470457318088#c4131486336489292916
"AnonymousAugust 5, 2016 at 9:21 PM
...
There seems to be a strong push for this team, and I think the chance for publicity would have been seized upon. Speaking of which, why the push for this team and radio silence for Hurtado and Khavalin? It is true that SD were paired early, but Hurtado was by far the stronger skater in the Hr/Dz pairing, and Khavalin is former world junior champion and senior world competitor for Russia. Diaz was the weaker partner in the Hr/Dz while Smart managed 27th in the short dance at 2015 worlds in a performance that would have made Meryl Davis look good in comparison.
Robledo and Fenero are a weak team, but being familiar with the skating of all parties, Hurtado and Khavalin should easily be a much stronger and much more capable team than Smart and Diaz are. Khavalin has already been released by Russia and is in Spain. He'll be eligible to compete internationally by later this fall. Yet, there has been no formal announcement from the Spanish Fed while they seem to be going to great lengths to promote and get undeserved attention for Smart and Diaz. Watching USFS and SC for so many years, it gives one the sense that something is up and one undeserving team will get preferential treatment over the more deserving one. In the words of Rachel Maddow, watch this space."
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Watch this space, indeed.
On Tuesday, the Spanish skating federation named Smart/Diaz to the world team over Hurtado/Khavalin. This is despite the fact that H/K won nationals handily over S/D and fulfilled the criteria set forth last August to earn the world team spot. That criteria was to have the highest TES in an international competition. H/K's TES was 0.1 points higher than S/D's highest, gifted at the Bavarian Open along with a ridiculous 104 point score for the FD. Does anyone really think S/D will score 104 in a big competition?
Two for the Ice, the only outlet covering skating with the balls to actually speak out about this development rather than act as an ass-kissing publicist, goes over it all here in this must-read: http://www.twofortheice.com/snapshot-stats-spanish-inquiry/
The short version is that the Spanish fed tried to handwave and declare that the 0.1 difference was really a tie because if/then situations involving GOE. As an aside, while the Two for the Ice article primarily deals with the ins and outs of this situation, the concluding paragraph brilliantly points out that the situation is an admission of the lack of accuracy in judgining.
"Furthermore, an argument asserting that already-allotted GOE is so unfixed as to be worth speculating upon undermines any premise of accuracy in ice dance judging. Grades of Execution are meant to be determined by specifically outlined, if vague, criteria; this claim, however, suggests that both team’s short dance marks were open to subjective fudging. But that revelation, perhaps, is the best gift this decision could have provided the sport’s audience."
Part 2 of 2
ReplyDeleteThis is a situation in which even FSU (FSU!) was even able to catch on to that this wasn't right. Of course, what FSU doesn't catch on to is shams. If there was no H/D sham, I'd bet money that S/D would not be on their way to worlds later this month.
To me, this is completely different than Dube/Wolfe making the trip in 2012. Jessica was a former world medalist in her own right. They more or less defaulted into getting the spot when other teams faltered at nationals with multiple major mistakes. She had an actual skating resume, and when she applied herself, could actually skate. S/D are going solely so H/D can spam us with sham photos. Diaz's highest previous finish at worlds was 14th places with Hurtado in 2015. Their previous finishes were 23rd, two 19ths, and a 16th. In Smart's only world appearance, in 2015, she finsihed 27th in the SD. Only 2 teams finished lower. Diaz and Smart can't skate even when they're applying themselves to plagiarized choreography.
Also, it's something that H/D, a team that was denied major championship spots for 3 consecutive seasons (4CC/Worlds in 2013, Olympics in 2014, 4CC in 2015) because of bullshit ice dance politics, have ended up denying a team who deserved to go to worlds on skating merit the trip becuase of bullshit shamming. H/D are far from the only team who have been screwed over politically more than once, but no one else on that list has resulted to anything as underhanded as this.
As a bonus, Mrs. Donohue, a woman who is hiding her marriage and child, decided to celebrate S/D being named to worlds by quoting Pope John XXIII. https://www.instagram.com/p/BRFLIkwlTZ1/
As a second bonus, after Spanish fans rightly stepped up to call out and criticize the decision, Hielo Español, which seems to be the Spanish Icenetwork of sorts, left a comment on facebook that, according to Google translate, the couple selected was feeling bad reading the critical comments. Boo hoo hoo. They couldn't fully enjoy the spot they stole from the team who actually earned it. https://www.facebook.com/hieloespanol/posts/1469564069742907?comment_id=1469580073074640&reply_comment_id=1469591299740184&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R5%22%7D
So glad someone brought this up here. I've had weird feelings about this team since last year as well. It's felt like a hard push for them and like Hubbell/Donohue were roped into being their promoters almost as soon as the partnership was publicized - and it's "paid off" for H/D in giving them some sort of Spanish fanbase.
DeleteI have wondered when S/D were told they were going to go to Worlds, because I wouldn't be surprised if they were always promised it as long as they didn't fall six times at one last international. Take these Instagram posts:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQvMWN0jVnN/?taken-by=oliviasmartx
This was made on February 20, more than a week before the Worlds announcement. "I've never felt so happy and so proud for what we did this weekend. But I know.. We deserve this" + a Helsinki2017 hashtag.
Adria decided to focus on #fairplay: https://www.instagram.com/p/BQutNMjAKN8/?taken-by=adriandiazbronchud
(Funny, seems like both halves of H/K and many Spanish and international fans didn't consider it very #fairplay. At least Jackie Wong was ecstatic: https://www.instagram.com/p/BREhlGQF4JL/?taken-by=rockerskating)
LOL so funny this ridiculous fanatic and nationalist blog.. V/M and S/S are so pathetic on ice with their robotic skating skills and old fashioned souless style...2 has been teams ..V/M dont left foot and S/S trot on ice..
ReplyDeleteLMAO yea, V/M are a has been team that have won everything they've entered this season so far. When they beat P/C it wasn't even close. A soulless style when they arguably have more soul and passion in their skating now with 2 years away from the sport and more perspective and maturity in their lives.
DeleteCarol lane is talking about building your brand rather than building skating skills as the most important thing a junior can do
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